Who Needs Gluten Anyway!!

My stomach has been depressed ever since the doc told me to cut out gluten for a while. No more fresh baked bread (gasp)!!!! I needed some comfort food, something that would soothe my soul & make my stomach say “oooooh yeaaaahhh”! I needed that satisfying food coma that only cheese, bread, & marinara could do! These Cheesy Cauliflower Breadsticks hit the spot;) They’re so good it feels like I’m cheating on my fantastic bread recipe. Bonus- If you have picky veggie eaters, they’ll never even know you’ve tricked them!!

When the doc said to eliminate gluten, I’m pretty sure my mind screamed “noooooooooooooooooo” inside. What! No gluten? Sounds easy, but most of the delicious, comforting & soul hugging foods have pesky gluten in them! Gluten is included in foods that you would never imagine would have it on their ingredient list, but that’s a whole other blog post lol!!

Cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable just like, cabbage, kale, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts and similar green leaf vegetables. They are rich in nutrients, carotenoids, vitamins C, E, and K; folate; and minerals. They also are a good source of fiber!!

Cheesy Cauliflower Breadsticks Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 head cauliflower

2 egg whites

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 tsp Italian seasoning (Like Mrs. Dash)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic

1 cup Marinara sauce for dipping;)

DIRECTIONS:

*Remove green leaves if attached & cut up cauliflower head into chunks. Place in a pot with about 1” of water to boil for 5 minutes or until soft enough to smash. Drain & let the cauliflower cool down a bit until it is safe to touch, about 15 minutes.

(don’t skip the cooling period, lol).

-If you look to the picture on the left, you’ll notice that it isn’t smashed into a paste. There are still some nice chunks in there. It doesn’t have to be smashed into oblivion lol! 😉

*After sufficiently smashed, you will need to squeeze out all of the liquid in the now cooked cauliflower. I use a cheesecloth/towel & hold the ends while twisting to squeeze the liquid out of the cauliflower “ball” as hard as you can. Do this until barely any liquid comes out.

*Bake for 18 minutes, remove from the oven and top with remaining cheese. Bake for another 5 minutes and then broil until cheese turns golden brown (about 1 minute). Make sure to keep a close eye on them when broiling! A broiler does it’s work fast & the difference between perfectly broiled & black can be a matter of seconds with any meal lol!!

*Cut into breadsticks with a pizza cutter and serve hot with warm marinara sauce!

They’re crispy on the outside & perfectly cheesy when pulled apart! My mouth is watering just remembering them from yesterday;)

I promise that if you make these for your family & don’t tell them that it’s not really bread but cauliflower, they will never know the difference!! My husband said they were really good! He liked that they weren’t quite as dry as breadsticks can sometimes be & they had excellent flavor!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!! Get to the store & load up on some cruciferous cauliflower!!!